Noin 2008 Harald zur Hausen accepting the Nobel Prize for having discovered, twenty years earlier, that the The cause of cervical cancer is human papillomavirus, or HPV. It was a Veronese doctor, Domenico Rigoni-Stern, who was the first to suspect a link between the most widespread female tumor and sexual activity in 1842, observing that the disease was extremely rare among nuns.
HPV, the virus that causes cancer (not only of the cervix)
Prof. Paolo Veronesi President of the Umberto Veronesi Foundation and Director of the Surgical Breast Division of the IEO
It took over 140 years for the culprit to be identified: a‘viral infection very common and almost always harmless, but capable, if chronic, to induce a tumor transformation in the cells it invades. In a short time these discoveries made it possible to recognize other HPV-induced cancers, like those oforopharynxand to develop safe vaccines and effective.
HPV, the vaccine is essential
It is a beautiful story of research and medicine, so much so that today in the privileged part of the world where screening and vaccinations are within everyone’s reach, people dream (with good reason) of turning cervical cancer into a rare disease.
THE vaccines are recommended and offered from the age of 12 to girls and boysbut the coverages are still well below those desired.
Who knows if we will remember the lesson of zur Hausen and Rigoni-Stern, if we understand that in the fight against tumors having a single triggering factor that can be avoided is an opportunity not to be missed.
iO Woman © REPRODUCTION RESERVED